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wool combe
r
voyage
fourteen
machine
pirate
darkness
Christopher
discover
famous
Columbus
thieves
Indian
Italy
Europe
America
monster
1. Long ago, in a city of sunny Italy, there lived a wool comber. Do you know what a wool comber does?
2. When the wool is cut from the sheep’s back, it is not fit to be woven into cloth at once. It must first be cleaned and combedout straight. This is what a wool comber did in days gone by. Now machines do the work which men once did by hand.
3. This wool comber was a poor man. He had to work hardto take care of his wife and children. He had five children—fourboys and one little girl.
4. His oldest boy was named Christopher Columbus, and it is about him that this story is written.
5. Christopher went to school and learned the things which in those times it was thought a boy should know.
He also worked with his father, but he did not want to be a wool comber. He wanted to be a sailor.
6. The city in which Columbus lived was close by the sea. Christopher loved to play on the shore, and to go about among the ships which sailed to far-off lands.
7. Almost every boy in the city had a father or brother or cousin who was a sailor. Little Christopher often saw these men. He loved to hear them tell about the places they had visited and the things they had seen. No wonder that he, too, wanted to be a sailor.
8. When Christopher Columbus was fourteen years old, he went to sea.
9. At that time, there were thieves on the sea as well as on the land. These sea thieves were called pirates. They went about in fast-sailing ships, and chased other ships and took away their treasures. Sometimes there would be fierce fights, and often men were killed.
10. We are told that young Columbus was in one of these sea fights with pirates. The ship he was on caught fire. Columbusjumped into the water, and by swimming and floating on a pieceof wood reached the shore safely.
Columbus reached the shore safely.
11. Columbus went far and wide on the sea. He said thatwherever man had sailed before him, there he sailed. If he had not done more than that, you and I would never have heard of him.
12. He became famous because he went where no man hadsailed before him. Before I tell you what Columbus did, you shall hear what a strange thing the people of that time believed.
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13. To-day the smallest child among you knows that this earth of ours is round, but about four hundred years ago children did not know this.
14. Even men and women believed that the world was flat. They thought that if a man went on and on, he would come to the end of the earth and fall off.
15. They called the great ocean to the west of Europe the Sea of Darkness. They believed that if a man sailed out on it he would never come back again. He would come to clouds of darkness and seas of fire; great monsters would swallow his ship.
16. A few wise men did not believe these stories. They said that the earth was round, and that, if a man sailed straight west, he would at last come back to the place from which he had started.
Yet none of these wise men ever sailed west to find out if thiswere true.
17. Christopher Columbus heard what the wise men had said. The more he thought about their words, and the longer he watched the sea and the sky, the more he believed that theywere right. At last he made up his mind to go and find out.
18. In those days, spices, silks, and gems were brought from far-off India to Italy and other countries of Europe.
19. To reach India, ships sailed to the east for weeks and weeks. When they were filled with the treasures for which they had gone, they turned about and sailed back to Italy. This was a long and costly voyage.
One of the ships
20. Now Columbus said that if the earth was round, as hebelieved it was, he could reach India in a shorter time by sailing to the west. Then, when his ships were filled with the treasures of India, he would start home, still sailing westward. In this way he would prove that the earth is round.
21. But to do all this, Columbus needed ships and money, and he had neither. He went to many rich and learned men, and asked their help. They only laughed at him.
22. Years passed; still Columbus found no one to help him, but he would not give up. At last he went to Spain, and the good queen gave him three little ships and sent some men to sail with him.
23. With these he started across the sea to discover the newway to India.
24. Columbus and his men little thought how long it would be before they saw land again. Two, three, four weeks went by, and still no land was in sight.
25. The men thought of the old stories about the Sea of Darkness. They feared that they would never reach their homes again. They wished to turn back, but Columbus would not do that.
26. One night clouds covered the sky. The wind blew hard, thewaves rose, and there was a great storm. It lasted three days and three nights. Then the sun shone and the sea grew calm, but still no land was in sight.
27. One day a bird came flying by. The men were glad to seeit, for they knew it must have come from shore. Land could not be far away.
28. Soon other signs of land were seen. Weeds floated on thewaves. Many birds were seen on the wing. Yet day after day went by and the sailors could see no land.
29. They grew angry because Columbus would not turn back. Some of them wished to kill him. Those were sad days and nights for the brave sailor.
30. One night Columbus was watching, as he often did. He stood on the high deck of the ship and looked over the waters. Far away a light seemed to rise and fall on the sea.
31. The next morning the longed-for land was in sight. How glad the men were to see it, and how happy Columbus was!
32. They took the small boats and rowed to the shore. There they fell on their faces and kissed the ground, and thanked God who had brought them to land.
They fell on their faces and thanked God.
33. Strange men came to the shore to see the sailors. These men had red skins and long, straight, black hair.
Columbus thought the land he had reached was India. So he called these men Indians, and that is what we call them to this day.
34. We know now that Columbus had done more than hethought. Instead of reaching the Old World by sailing west, he had come to a New World. He had discovered America!
dove
wool
soon
woven
loved
rook
shoot
often
covered
stood
school
oxen